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Monday, 2 May 2011

As if that would ever happen...

Apologies for the lack of posting: I've been a busy little bee. (And some of that busyness has even involved working on stories...)

Anyway, here's a second post about writing. Actually, it's as much about reading as writing, because it centres on a facet of fiction that I personally find important to an enjoyable reading experience. Take a bow, narrative consistency. (Woo!)

I say consistency rather than plausibility, as plausibility in and of itself (in terms of closeness to our own experiences of the world) isn't essential: there's nothing at all wrong with flights of fancy and/or narratives based in fantastical or illogical worlds. What matters is that, once a fictitious world has been created, the rules of that fictitious world aren't arbitrarily broken.

Stories that drive me nuts are ones that set themselves up as 'realistic' (in terms of setting, characters, dialogue) only to abruptly discard that realism as and when the plot demands. Such sudden jumps stand out like a sore thumb; they grate.

This applies to spanking fiction as much as any other type of fiction as it is essentially a character-based genre. The motivations of the characters are central to the thing as a whole, so actions and reactions have to feel believable for the piece to work overall. If a departure has to be made from the logical or psychological bases previously established in the text, it's vital that the author provides a compelling justification for such departure(s). Or, in other words, that he or she does it well. Without such justification, the story is weakened, the characterisation of the figures involved is weakened, the reader’s belief in the world of the story is jolted and the overall reading experience is made less enjoyable.

I try to ensure that my own spanking stories pass the consistency test. Do I succeed? You tell me...